Frazer-Nash

Captain Archibald Frazer-Nash established Frazer-Nash Ltd. in Kingston-on-Thames in 1924 after his GN (Godfrey Nash) firm closed down. His early cars were based on the old GN designs. The company was soon taken over by the Aldington Brothers of Isleworth and in 1926 was renamed AFN Ltd. This produced very popular - but rather basic - sportscars and in 1934, in an effort to keep the product range up to date, AFN began to import BMW engines.After the war the company was revived with AFN and Bristol developing the BMW 328 engine and the cars enjoyed considerable success in sportscar racing with drivers such as Roy Salvadori and Tony Crook. In 1952 several of the company's Le Mans replicas were stripped down and raced as single-seaters while the company also agreed to build a limited number of open-wheelers. The first of these was bought by Peter Bell's Scuderia Franera and was raced by Ken Wharton, finishing fourth in the Swiss GP at Bremgarten, although he was two laps behind the winner. A week later he finished third in the Eifelrennen at the Nurburgring. A couple of others chassis appeared later but the cars could not compete at international level and gradually disappeared as the privateers gave up and looked to other machines.Production of Frazer-Nash cars ceased in 1957.